WASHINGTON, USA: A former CIA officer, Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Wednesday after pleading guilty to spying for China, according to the U.S. Justice Department. Ma, 71, reached a plea agreement in May, admitting to conspiring to provide national defence information to China. Ma, who served in the CIA from 1982 to 1989, collaborated with a now-deceased relative, also a former CIA employee. In 2001, they delivered a substantial amount of classified defence information to Chinese intelligence officers for $50,000.
